It ended up more positive than I expected, where he implies that the language is being revived by children and nordies.
I don't want Irish to die out, not for bogus nationalistic reasons, but because I don't like it when any languages die out. Right now, the majority of the worlds languages are dying, which is depressing.
In my experience, nearly everyone in Ireland can speak Irish. They just say they can't out of sheer bloody-mindedness. That seemed to be what happened in that guy's article anyway. I'm sure if he'd told that barman or that travel agent "Oscail an doras, le do thoil", they'd have bloody well known he wanted them to open the bloody door.
It's the usual shite where people are afraid to look stupid, so they won't admit they don't know what you're saying when you speak Irish, they just say "I don't speak it," rather than "what does that word mean?" or "can you speak more slowly?" It's the same reason they won't try out the few words of French/Spanish/German/whatever that they've picked up in school.
Having had some practical experience with this (for the past five years I've been on a journey to revive and transcend the level of Irish I learned in school), my opinion is obviously more valid than anyone elses.
Accentmonkey: "It's the usual shite where people are afraid to look stupid"
I think it's very close to that. People are afraid of embarrasment, but actually I think that they are kind of embarrassed to talk Irish even if their Irish is quite good. I've been to the Gaeltacht on courses a couple of times as an adult (a rare perk in the civil circus) and even though people have specifically signed up to speak Irish, they are embarrassed to come out with the words. I know people who I KNOW were well able to speak Irish but were tongue-tied due to the embarrassment of hearing themselves speaking it out loud. That's my little theory on it anyway.
6 comments:
Is "first official language" a cheat, using historical primacy? I always understood that English was The Official Language of Ireland.
Check out the Constitution, man, specifically Article 8: http://www.taoiseach.gov.ie/attached_files/html%20files/Constitution%20of%20Ireland%20(Eng).htm
It ended up more positive than I expected, where he implies that the language is being revived by children and nordies.
I don't want Irish to die out, not for bogus nationalistic reasons, but because I don't like it when any languages die out. Right now, the majority of the worlds languages are dying, which is depressing.
In my experience, nearly everyone in Ireland can speak Irish. They just say they can't out of sheer bloody-mindedness. That seemed to be what happened in that guy's article anyway. I'm sure if he'd told that barman or that travel agent "Oscail an doras, le do thoil", they'd have bloody well known he wanted them to open the bloody door.
It's the usual shite where people are afraid to look stupid, so they won't admit they don't know what you're saying when you speak Irish, they just say "I don't speak it," rather than "what does that word mean?" or "can you speak more slowly?" It's the same reason they won't try out the few words of French/Spanish/German/whatever that they've picked up in school.
That's certainly true, but at least when confronted with Gaelgeoirs you can at least be fairly certain that they are fluent in English.
Having had some practical experience with this (for the past five years I've been on a journey to revive and transcend the level of Irish I learned in school), my opinion is obviously more valid than anyone elses.
Accentmonkey: "It's the usual shite where people are afraid to look stupid"
I think it's very close to that. People are afraid of embarrasment, but actually I think that they are kind of embarrassed to talk Irish even if their Irish is quite good. I've been to the Gaeltacht on courses a couple of times as an adult (a rare perk in the civil circus) and even though people have specifically signed up to speak Irish, they are embarrassed to come out with the words. I know people who I KNOW were well able to speak Irish but were tongue-tied due to the embarrassment of hearing themselves speaking it out loud. That's my little theory on it anyway.
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